Thunder Holds Off Cleveland 102-95

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Thunder Holds Off Cleveland 102-95

(Cleveland, OH)—

The Thunder has a way of making things exciting. Thursday night, OKC played without “resting” all-star point guard Russell Westbrook, going against a shorthanded Cleveland team missing three of it’s best players. Easy victory, right?

Uh…not really. Kevin Durant was his usual superstar self with 35 points and 11 rebounds. And it looked like the Thunder would definitely rumble to a comfortable rout when Caron Butler buried a 3-pointer midway through the final quarter to boost OKC’s lead to 95-71.

But Cleveland decided they wanted to play some more…and play the Cavs did! Cleveland went on a 21-2 run over the next several minutes to cut the Thunder lead to 97-92 with 2:30 minutes left to play. You could see the disdain on the face of Thunder head coach Scott Brooks when he had to re-insert Durant, and starting forward Serge Ibaka, back into the game to finish it off.

When it was over, Oklahoma City had improved it’s season record to 50-18 on it’s way to Canada tonight for a 6:00pm battle against the Toronto Raptors. Westbrook, who was held out to give his injured knee some rest, *will* return to the Thunder lineup for Friday’s game.